China Eastern, China Southern and other SkyTeam carriers to move to Beijing New Airport in 2019

China Eastern and China Southern Airlines, along with other SkyTeam member carriers, plan to move to Beijing New Airport when it opens in 2019, according to the CAAC.

Air China and other Star Alliance member carriers are expected to remain at Beijing Capital Airport, which has a slot shortage, making it increasingly difficult for carriers to get approval to boost flight frequencies and open new routes.

Beijing New Airport, which is located in Daxing in the southeast part of Beijing, is projected to handle an annual passenger volume of 45 million in 2020, 72 million in 2025, and 100 million in the longer term. It is expected to serve Beijing, Tianjin and the Hebei province.

As early as 2011, China Southern signed a cooperation agreement with the Beijing government to allocate about 200 aircraft—Airbus A330s and A380s—to Beijing New Airport over the next 10 years.

The regulator announced Thursday it is allowing China Eastern and China Southern to build their own infrastructures at Beijing New Airport based on their respective passenger boardings that would account for 40% of the airport’s annual passenger volume. In addition, both carriers can take four years as a transition period to transfer all domestic and international routes to the new airport and enjoy some favorable policies and support in areas including international traffic rights, slots allocation, airport charges and ground handling.

Local industrial analysts said Air China was the big winner from Beijing’s decision while China Eastern would be negatively affected as it has a 50% market share on the most profitable domestic business routes from Beijing (capital airport) to Shanghai.

In addition to China’s big three carriers, CAAC said Shijiazhuang-based Hebei Airlines, Beijing Capital Airlines and China Postal Group would also move to Beijing New Airport. However, it remains unknown whether Hainan Airlines will move there. Hainan operates domestic routes out of Beijing Capital Airport’s Terminal 1 and international routes out of Terminal 2.

ATWOnline